Spartans roll to Newburyport final

NEWBURYPORT – With its state tournament fate still very much up in the air, the St. Mary’s hockey team has positioned itself to have a very high seed in the Division 1 North tournament if it is allowed to participate.On Wednesday at Graf Rink, the Spartans scored a pair of shorthanded goals and added a power play goal to help overcome a pesky Danvers team, 5-2, and advance to the Bresnahan Division finals of the Newburyport Bank Ice Hockey Classic.St. Mary’s will play either reigning Division 2 state champion Newburyport or Division 2 North finalist Lincoln-Sudbury on Friday (7) in the finals. The Clippers and Warriors had their North final rematch postponed to today (1) at Graf because of Wednesday’s storm.”A lot of credit to Danvers, they came out aggressive, hard hitting and didn’t let us get going for quite a while,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said. “We didn’t have our best effort (Wednesday) but it’s a credit to this team that they found a way to get the win.”The Falcons (8-7-4) had clawed their way back from 3-0 down in the first period to make it a 3-2 game heading to the third. But a couple of costly defensive breakdowns resulted in a shorthanded goal and a power play goal late in the third that ensured the St. Mary’s win.”We fought so hard to get back and then we kind of gave it to them too easy in the third,” Danvers coach Kevin Brown said. “We battled so well for the first two periods and then we had a couple of breakdowns in the third.”The Spartans (13-8-0) had a jump in their step early and it resulted in a quick 1-0 lead at 3:32 when Derek Stella converted on an Eric Rosengren rebound. Later in the first, the Spartan special teams began their big day.With Corey Bartlett off for interference, the Spartans went on the attack as Mike Restuccia got a breakaway and tucked his shot past Mike Allain to make it 2-0 with 5:54 left in the period.Just over a minute later, some slick work around the net allowed Stella to get free for an instant and tap home a Bobby Mullins rebound to make it 3-0 Spartans.Late in the first, the Falcons got a boost, though, as Jack McCarthy scored off a D.J. Yost pass with 49 ticks remaining to cut the lead to two.Danvers rode the momentum of McCarthy’s goal into the second period and got the Spartans back on their heels with their tenacious forecheck and some well-timed body checks.”They did a great job of clogging the shooting lanes,” Lee said. “They didn’t give us a lot of room down low to shoot from.”The Falcons would get the lone goal of the second just short of the midpoint as Pat McBride’s centering pass hit the stick of defenseman Cam Kennedy and got past a startled Donald Hesse to suddenly cut the gap to a goal.”We were able to step up and play right with them,” Brown said. “We just have to learn to finish games like this off.”Despite being held to just 11 shots through two periods, the Spartans didn’t panic and would find their legs again shorthanded midway through the third.Doyle Somerby’s ice-length pass found Bobby Mullins behind the defense for a breakaway at the end of a Danvers power play that upped the lead to 4-2 with 6:51 to go.”Special teams are going to be big in the tournament,” Brown said. “And obviously we’re going to have to go back and work on those in practice.”Late in the third, Restuccia picked up his second of the game, assisted by Kennedy and Julian Yourawski, on the power play at 12:14.